1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a seat belt device, and more particularly a seat belt device for maintaining a seat belt in a position rearward of a seat when a passenger gets into or off an automobile and for moving at least a portion of the seat belt to a position forward of the seat when the seat belt is to be fastened by the passenger.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various safety seat belts have heretofore been proposed and used for holding passengers on vehicle seats for safety against collision with some solid object in the vehicle. One type of such safety seat belt is known as a three-point seat belt or a combination lap and shoulder belt. The three-point seat belt comprises a belt having one end fixed to an inner wall of a vehicle compartment at a relatively high position and an opposite end fixed to the inner wall at a relatively low position. The belt includes a tongue plate attached to an intermediate portion thereof and held in engagement with a buckle located on the side of a seat remote from the inner wall of the vehicle compartment. In use, the upper portion of the belt above the tongue plate serves to support a shoulder of a passenger sitting on the seat, while the lower belt portion below the tongue plate holds the waist of the passenger. The three-point seat belt can provide greater safety than a two-point seat belt which maintains a passenger with a single belt extending obliquely across the body of the passenger.
The ends of three-point seat belt are usually fastened to the vehicle inner wall near the center pillar. This presents a problem in that the belt cannot easily be caught by a passenger when the belt is to be fastened. A three-point seat belt device which is designed for eliminating the drawback is disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Utility Model Publication No. 56624/1978. According to this seat belt system, a hook is attached to an upper end of a seat back near the inner wall of the vehicle compartment, and the tongue plate on the belt is left in engagement with the hook when not in use.
This seat belt device allows the belt to be caught with ease. However, where the seat belt system is installed in a two-door automobile having rear seats, passengers have to be particularly careful with the seat belt when getting on or off the rear seat, a process of which is quite awkward.
There has been proposed also the type of seat belt devices having a lever swingably connected to a vehicle body, a belt having a lower end thereof fixed to the movable end of the lever, and a retractor for winding the other end of the belt. When a passenger is to get on or off a rear seat, the lever is swung out of the way. One such seat belt device is disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Utility Model Publication No. 121020/1977. In this seat belt device, a swingable lever is pivotally mounted on a vehicle body behind a front seat near a door, and a wire is fastened at one end to a lower end of the back of the seat and at the other end to the swingable lever. When a passenger get on or off a rear seat, the back of the front seat is turned down forward so that the wire pulls the lever to move rearward. Thereby the belt is moved to a position along the center pillar to permit the passenger to get easily on or off the rear seat. Upon return of the front seat back to a normal position, the lever is angularly moved forward under the force of a spring attached thereto so that the movable end of the lever, to which the lower end of the belt is connected, is moved to be positioned directly laterally with the front seat back. Although this seat belt device permits passengers to get on or off the rear seats uninterruptedly, it fails to give a front-seat passenger easy access to the belt for fastening the same. Indeed, it is preferable for this purpose that the movable end of the lever, to which the belt is attached, should be moved to be positioned directly laterally with a passenger's body on a front seat or forward of such a lateral position rather than being positioned directly laterally with the front seat back. However, this seat belt device cannot meet such a requirement since if the end of the lever were located at a preferable position above, the lever would prevent the passenger from being seated on the front seat, and the front seat back sould be turned forward in order to move the lever out of such position.
The present invention has been devised to provide a seat belt device designed to meet various demands simultaneously, that is, to allow passengers to get easily on and off rear seats in two-door automobiles, to permit a passenger to catch a seat belt when it is to be fastened, and to allow a passenger to be seated on a front seat easily and unobstructedly.